


Take These Wings & Fly

by iammyfavflower



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Humor, Minor Violence, Multi, Slow Burn, but it isn't the main focus of the work, but its actually the space family with dragons, i said it was a loving supporting space family, klance will be there, the lions as dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 04:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13379763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iammyfavflower/pseuds/iammyfavflower
Summary: "Snuggle Muffin," Lance declared, planting his hands on his hips. "I will call her Snuggle Muffin."Pidge looked at Lance, who looked way too smug for the situation at hand. "You want to call that," she gestured at the dragon that was staring past Lance and back at her and Hunk, with all of its deadly teeth bared. "Snuggle Muffin?"Lance looked Pidge directly in the eye. "Yup."





	1. The Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: this fic does include violence. There isn't much in the first chapter but it is likely there will be more, please be wary of this
> 
> So I fell into voltron hell and I can't escape. Just something about the era before we start. Technology is not very well developed in this story, as in computers aren't even a thing. However the way the characters act and some of the knowledge they have does not fit this era at all and I apologize for this. I couldn't help but write them the way I have.
> 
> Now that I've gotten that over with, enjoy.

Lance had made a lot of mistakes in his life. There was the time that he had accidentally pushed Rico off the west cliffs, causing him to plummet 7 metres before hitting the water. Another time he had forgotten to wash any of his clothes, leaving him nothing to wear for his date the next day. He had also convinced his best buddy Hunk to let him handle the next shipping order and ended up almost being smuggled to the Galra as fresh meat for the fighting pits. There was also that one time where he had made Pidge write his essay for him and she, the evil Satan child that she was, wrote four pages on how he spent every minute of that class staring at Keith. Now that last part is a lie; he was _glaring_ at Keith.

The list could go on; it could go on for a very long time if he let it. But there was the more pressing matter of being shot at on Lance's mind. You see, it’s already been established that Lance has made many mistakes, but none of them can really compare to going outside while it’s not only dragon night, but also a Galra attack.

It didn’t start off like this; Lance wasn’t that big of an idiot. There were a lot of little things that led to Lance’s big fuck up. A chain reaction of tiny mistakes that led to one massive mistake. A domino chain, except instead of just knocking over other dominos and making a pretty pattern, the dominos grew large and scaly and fire-breathing. They also had scary knuckleheads shooting arrows at them. It wasn’t the best situation. But, it also wasn’t entirely Lance’s fault for being in the way either.

First of all, his younger sister Polly had run down towards the forest. Polly was four. She was adorable, with big blue eyes that matched Lance’s own, and dark hair that curled around her shoulders. She also had no sense of what would put her in severe danger. Pidge and Hunk would probably argue that that applied to Lance as well, but they weren’t there so Lance didn’t have to listen to them.

Lance had raced off after her, swiftly steering her away from the dragon-infested forest on the south side of the island and back into their worried mother’s arms. It had taken a while, walking her all the way back to the other side of the island. He had been lucky to spot her; it was a good thing he was still hanging around the winter storage barns. It was his job to start packing supplies come autumn. Which lead Lance to his next mistake. He left the door open. The door to the barn that had all the food in it. Specifically, the one with the dried meat.

On any other day of the week, that would have been fine. Sure, he forgot, but when he inevitably remembered later on he could just make the cold trek back over to close it. Or he could even wait until the next morning when the sun had peeked out over the ocean and warmed the island. It was no big deal; the barn was far enough away from the forest that no curious dragons would emerge and poke around. Except it was a big deal, because it was Friday, and 5pm Friday marked the start of dragon night.

Dragon night was a worn-in routine by the time Lance was old enough to question why everyone stayed inside one night a week. It had been implemented a few decades ago by the elders, the ones that had realised that dragons weren’t usually aggressive if you didn’t attack them, especially if you gave them some time to go hunting undisturbed. Hunting mostly meant fishing a little ways offshore. Sometimes livestock was taken, but that only happened rarely. The dragons seemed to realise that not taking the sheep and cows that roamed the island was a small price to pay for safety. And if someone did happen to see a young dragon, wings too long for its body and smoke swirling around its face from exertion, carrying a sheep off into the sky, then they would let it slide.

There was always something mystical about watching the dragons hunt. Lance’s house was one of the larger, older ones that sat nestled along the beach. He would sit on his bed with his face pressed against the window until he wilted into sleep in the early hours of the morning. The Garrison had official names for the dragons, great scientific names that somehow managed to make dragons seem boring. So Lance made up his own names for them as a kid. And they stuck. He would watch the Ash Bellies scorch the water, making it sizzle and pop and cause the fish to jump right into their fiery mouths. He would hold his breath as a Chamelio slunk around in the shallows, its skin shimmering before seemingly disappearing. Lance knew they didn’t actually disappear, but from far away it really looked like it. The earthy browns and sparkling golds of the Silverwings reflected against the water a moment before they rammed into its depths never failed to catch his eye. He was enamoured with the way the Tide Master’s wings tucked into its body as it darted through the water.  And on a good night, when the sky was clear, he would occasionally see a Black Beast silhouetted against the full moon.

Even though all the beauty of the dragons, Lance now realised they were terrifying when enraged and flying a few metres above him. In theory, this was a good idea, they _needed_ that food for winter, and he should have been fine popping out to close up the barn. It was fine in fact, until a fleet of angry brutes who called themselves the Galra had decided to come over and shoot at the dragons.

The Galra were those types of people with stupid and outdated ideas that they should have realised were stupid and outdated but hadn’t. For one, they hunted dragons for sport and put them in fighting pits. As any sensible person would have realised, this was not a good idea.

The harsh screech that echoed above Lance’s head was a perfect example of this.

Lance was halfway across the island, rushing past flocks of slightly singed sheep that were cowering in the fields. It was about five more minutes until he could do some cowering for himself. In the barn. That was the whole reason for the dangerous state Lance had found himself in; it would be nice if it came in handy for something.

An arrow hissed past his ear. Lance let out a startled yelp and dropped down into the grass. There were a few stray Galra firing frantically at the sky above them. A Chamelio flashed into existence above the group and slashed at them, dropping the invaders with only a few muffled screams before melting back into the night sky. One of the Galra left standing yelled out into the night, slashing viciously at the air around him.

Lance took the opportunity of his distracted foes to push himself up off the ground and take off in the opposite direction. Not before sneaking a look back towards the shore where the invaders had first appeared. There were about a dozen ships, some pushed up against the sand, and others still floating in the bay. Above, and even all the way around the sides as well, was the hellish sight of angry dragons. The giant ball of scales and wings spewed fire. The ships burned against the inky sky. Tide Master’s clawed at the boats from the water, dragging them down into the merciless water. Silverwings rammed the docked ships, battering them to pieces. Some even dove from the sky, crashing into them with so much force that they practically shattered. Other dragons went after the small groups that had managed to get onto the island.

The sound that echoed all throughout the island was the worst thing he had ever heard. High pitched screeching and the low rumbles of Silverwings coupled with cracking wood and pained screams that permeated the air. Lance didn’t know if the Galra knew, or if the adrenaline coursing through their bodies stopped them from forming coherent thoughts, but they stood absolutely no chance against the fiery beasts of the sky.

The small trail that meant he was close to the barn was soon under Lance’s feet and relief instantly swept through his body. Just a little bit longer, and then he was safe.

“I don’t know how the fuck I managed to pull this off but I’m sure as hell glad that I did,” he muttered to himself as the wooden structure came into view.

A massive shadow hung in the sky for a second. It blotted out the moon and shielded him from the harsh light of a nearby Ash Belly’s fire. For one, impossible second, Lance thought he was back home with his face pressed up against his bedroom window. And one, very real second later, everything came crashing back down to Earth. Both metaphorically and literally.

The sky crashed into the ground about five feet away from Lance in the form of a vibrant blue Tide Master. Lance screeched and went ass first onto the ground as well. The dragon was curled in on itself; it’s long slender body twisted in a complex sort of knot. Its face was incredibly slim and about the size of Lance’s torso. Around its mouth were small white scales, which gradually grew larger and morphed into a stunning aqua blue. At the crown of its head the scales grew darker and twisted down a long neck onto its body where the blue was its darkest, which was only still quite light. The dark scales grew softer and lighter as they curved under its stomach. Deep blue spikes the size of Lance’s palm protruded from the dragon’s back. The wings were made of a thin membrane that reflected the moonlight.

A soft groan escaped into the air and Lance’s head snapped back to the dragon’s face. Lance must have made a startled noise because one dark eye flickered over to him. It wasn’t like a normal eye; it was slit down the middle like a cat’s. In the poor light, he couldn’t really tell, but it seemed unnaturally blue. And so full of pain and sadness that it made almost made Lance physically feel the same.

The dragon made the noise again, a low rumble in its throat that was too deep for any human to produce. Looking down at the dragon's throat, Lance realised the thick rope that was tangled around its body. He saw the way a wing was sticking out awkwardly and noticed the way metal glinted red against soft blue. Heard the yelling that was quickly getting closer and closer.

The thought of just getting up and running crossed Lance’s mind. He could just leave the beast to be taken by the Galra and save his own life. He could just forget about it and live the rest of his life having survived a Galra attack out in the open during dragon night. But then he thought about the almost whines the dragon was now making. He thought about how it would be slaughtered going up against an Ash Belly in the fighting pits. He couldn’t just forget about how he led an innocent creature to its death, especially one this beautiful.

Lance slowly stood, and the large eye tracked the movements. The Tide Master hissed at him when he reached for the knife in his belt. “Shit,” Lance breathed, taking three slow steps forwards. The hisses bubbled up into growls, a low bass line to the wailing and screeching that filled the air.

“Hey beautiful,” Lance had always been a talker, chatting away to anyone that would listen, even some that wouldn’t. Apparently, he was willing to talk to bloodthirsty dragons as well. The aggressive noises seemed to lessen at Lance’s voice. “If you promise not to kill me, or attack me, I might be able to get you out of this mess?” He gently placed a hand on one of the dragon’s back legs. It jerked underneath his touch and the growling started up again. Lance made what he hoped to be a comforting noise and kept his hand on the thick scales. They were surprisingly smooth, not rough like they were rumoured to be. They were almost slick even.

After a few seconds where the dragon must have realised that Lance didn’t pose any immediate threat to it, the noises went quiet and its body went still. The stillness made the scales look like the ocean, each scale almost like a wave, shimmering blue under the pale moonlight. Lance let out a large breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“There it is! I can see it just up ahead!”

He brought the silver blade of the knife to one of the ropes that had ensnared the dragon’s leg. He pretended not to notice the way his hand was shaking.

“I’m gonna cut through these ropes okay?” He was speaking so fast he could hardly recognise his own voice. “I know you’ll still have those nasty metal spikes in your pretty scales and whatever happened to your wing but if I can get the ropes off you can run, you can get to the forest before they take you. You can escape, they can’t hurt you if you’re hiding okay beautiful?”

A pile of ropes slid to the ground. Lance darted over to the front leg. His knife went to work again. Somewhere in his mind he registered that he was still talking, he was babbling to the dragon. He didn’t even know what he was saying. His knife reached no more resistance and he was ducking under the dragon’s head and was cutting more rope on the other side before he had even thought to do so.

“I’m scared. I’m so scared I don’t want to die,” someone was saying. Lance only realised it was him talking when he was stepping over another pile of ropes.

“Oi you! What do you think you’re doing? Get away from our dragon!” roared a voice that was closer than Lance wanted it to be. He chanced a glance up and saw a group of three soldiers sprinting towards him. Their faces were lit up by a distant fire that cast harsh shadows. Their armour was dark, even with the additional light.

Something shifted under Lance’s hands. The previously immobile body stood, one wing tucked in towards its body and the other sticking out. The dragon stood low to the ground and unfurled, its body expanding until it looked like it could encompass Lance at least three times over with its body.

Lance stared before coming back to his senses. “Go back to the forest beautiful, you’ll be safe,” he cried. The dragon shifted its slitted gaze to him, considering him for a second before lifting its head towards the heavens and screeching. The noise was unlike the enormous amount of sound coming from the bay. It was high pitched and piercing, the kind of sound that pulled each individual piece of hair taut and echoed in your bones. It rung in Lance’s ears as the dragon sprinted as fast as it could to the safety of the trees. He watched it slink into the thick undergrowth, nothing would be able to get it in there.

Lance sucked in a breath, spinning around on his feet and angling towards the barn. He could make it, if he sprinted fast enough he could get away and hide. He took one large step in the direction, making sure to step all the way over the pile of ropes.

A clunky metal hand latched onto the collar of Lance’s shirt and wheeled him back. “Uh uh uh,” said a gravelly voice. “Now just where do you think you’re going?”

He was thrown bodily onto the floor, his head hit the ground heavily. The knife in his hands grazed the flesh of his arm. Laughter peeled around him. A heavy boot pressed into his back, heel grinding down painfully hard. Lance groaned

“That was our prize, boy,” said the same voice from before. It was awfully clear over the screeching of dragons and the ringing in his head. “You folks just don’t understand how dangerous these beasts can be, we were doing you a favour really. That nasty fire breather they’re loading up onto our boats now could’ve roasted you for dinner if we didn’t get here first,” he paused and something sharp rested on the back of Lance’s neck. “It’s a shame really, that one would’ve been a beauty in the pits, would’ve made an especially nice pair of boots too. Boss won’t be too happy, I guess we’ll just have to take you instead.”

Lance whimpered. The soldiers laughed.

This was a nightmare, a terrible dream. Lance had fallen asleep and his brain had decided to play a terrible trick on him. Dreams felt real, they always did, but they never felt like the blade that was starting to cut into his neck. They never felt that real.

The Galra realised the pressure off of Lance’s back, once again latching onto his collar before he could scramble away. The metal arm clicked as it lifted Lance up and spun him around to face the other two soldiers. Their grins were crooked. Their armour still looked so dark, too dark in the harsh fire, and uneven in a way. It was made of tiny pieces that clicked together in a seamless formation. Less smoothly, the pieces clicked into place. Their armour was made of scales. Dragon scales. Lance wanted to throw up. They were saying something to each other, then something to him. Then the man with metal arm was shaking him and Lance didn’t know which way was up and which way was down.

The stars though, Lance could see them steady in his vision. He turned his face towards them, the stars could save him, the stars could help. The ones Rico had painted onto his roof helped him when he had nightmares. He would count them until he could no longer keep his eyes open and he knew the monsters had gone. If the crooked stars on his ceiling could help him then surely the real ones could do wonders, work miracles even. Lance looked up, eyes trained on the night sky. That was entirely black. Pure darkness. No twinkling light, no soft comfort in the dead of night. Only a harsh blanket that enveloped him and _squeezed_.

Maybe, this is what the end looked like.

~

“Get the net! Get the net!”

“The net won’t do anything! It’s too late!”

“Just do something! Anything!”

~

The world was a lot more unstable when being carried through the air, Lance noted. The tiny houses tilted violently and people looked like ants scuttling along the ground. The wind whipped through his hair, gravity didn’t apply to him, and he felt free. The fire that engulfed the Galra ships was nothing to worry about, it was just a distant source of light. Apart from the fuzziness in his head, Lance could get used to this.

There was something sharp digging into his torso, so he wiggled around a bit. Lance was met with strong resistance, the sharp thing digging deeper into his side. He twisted his head, trying to see what it was and was met only with an inky black. He looked up to where the stars should have been and saw a segmented darkness. He looked back to the ground, which was getting further and further away.

“People can’t fly,” Lance said to himself, confusion furrowing his brow. People can’t fly, so how was he flying? Did he suddenly get magic powers? Was he in space? Did Pidge find a way to rewrite the laws of the universe? Lance registered the sharp thing again, and how it wasn’t just one sharp thing, but multiple sharp things. There also seemed to be a pressure around his midsection, where the sharp things were. It was like, something was holding him. Lance looked back up again at the not-sky. He zeroed in on the scales. Oh. _Oh_.

The dragon nearly dropped him when he let out a high pitched scream.

It tilted its head, quickly glancing at him before looking forward once more. Lance continued to thrash and scream.

“I don’t wanna be dragon dinner! I’m just a poor boy that was trying to do some good in this world! I don’t wanna die!” The dragon didn’t even look back at him this time, it just kept flying. Lance realised his screaming and begging wouldn’t do anything. He liked the Tide Master better. “What type of dragon are you anyway?”

Lance took in the black colouration, a dark colour that consumed its entire body minus a few white scales. It could be an Ash Belly, the full black colouring was rare, but it wasn’t unheard of. It looked too broad though, more like a Silverwing. As far as Lance knew, there had never been a recorded case of a black Silverwing. He swivelled as much as he could in the dragon’s grip, staring up at a massive beating wing. It was fully black. The tell-tale bright silver streak that curved around a Silverwing’s wing was absent. Puzzled, Lance looked back at its scales, and how they were individually the size of his palm. They were humongous compared to those of the Tide Master. It was then that he took in the sheer size of the dragon and it started to make sense.

“No. Fucking. Way.” The dragon that had taken him was a Black Beast. The most elusive, rare and powerful dragon known to man.

This time when Lance screamed, the dragon did drop him.


	2. The Ocean in Your Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to get this out a lot sooner. But motivation can be a real issue sometimes so what can you do.
> 
> NOTE: paragraphs in italics are flashbacks/memories
> 
> idk how I feel about this chapter. Enjoy

Lance fell through the air like a pebble. The weightlessness that had wormed its way into his body left as soon as the dragon had released him, before he had even realised what was happening. The scream that had been the cause for the whole incident got caught in his throat, trying to claw its way out of him before abruptly dying. Other than the piercing cries of dragons and the rushing of air in his ears, the world was silent. The silence cradled him as he fell, holding onto Lance so tight that even his mind went quiet for a few halting seconds.

Like a pebble, Lance fell, silently soaring through the air as gravity pulled its child back into open arms.

His back hit the water, and it felt almost as if he had landed on the ground. It stole the air from Lance’s lungs and dragged him down into its depths. He panicked and sucked in a breath, only to find liquid screaming down his airways. Desperately, he kicked and thrashed, brought himself back up to something he could breathe.

Lance swam towards the shore, adrenalin pushing him far and fast. Years spent by the ocean had already made Lance a good swimmer, so it wasn’t long before he was pulling himself onto the shore. His body felt too heavy, his clothes were soaked through with water. He lifted his head from where it had collapsed onto the sand and took in his surroundings.

From what he could make out, Lance guessed he was somewhere near the west cliffs. A sharp line of rocks curved away out of sight. Waves clawed at the cliffs, crashing in uneven bursts. He could make out a ship sailing outwards past the cliffs, and dragon fire turned the sky bright in the distance. Lance surveyed the sky; the Black Beast was nowhere to be seen. At least he was in some place relatively safe. The cliffs curved inwards, forming a small cove like area that he had never seen before.

As a child, Lance had wandered the beaches with his siblings. They would parade around, racing across the soft sand and collecting shells. The younger siblings would challenge those older than them to wrestle. When Lance was deemed older, he realised that he actually wasn’t that strong as a kid, everyone was just a little weak to puppy eyes. When the tide was particularly strong things would often get washed up on the beach.

_The sun painted the sky in a mixture of pinks and oranges that rivalled the art pieces that were occasionally shipped in. Merida was picking through the sand for shells, her curls blowing softly in the wind. Rico and the rest of Lance’s siblings were racing down the straight. It was a sight; a hoard of children bolting down the beach, shoving at each other and yelling wildly. Lance, who was still small enough to hide in the rocks, was kicking at sand under his feet. The water pooled around his ankles before retreating back into the ocean in a swift, repetitive motion._

_“Why aren’t you racing with the rest of them?” Merida asked, picking up an unbroken shell and holding it up to the light._

_Lance continued kicking at the shore, slowly making his way closer to the docks. “I overheard someone say that the tide was strong,” he said, pausing when his foot skimmed over something that didn’t quite feel like sand or rock. “When the tides are strong cool things wash up.”_

_There was the clink of a shell being put in the designated ‘shell bag’ and an affirmative noise from Merida. Lance leaned down and brushed his hand over where he had felt the thing. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t a rock. “Even though it doesn’t happen all the time, I have a good feeling about this,” Lance started digging at the thing, squatting down even though he could get wet._

_Lance dug for a while, pushing at the sand to reveal a shiny, silver band thing. It was dotted with tiny blue gemstones, with one larger one that seemed more important for some reason. He yelled for Merida, who had rushed over only to get excited over it with him. She pried it from his grabby hands and held it up out of his reach._

_“Here it goes like this,” Merida said after a second, placing it over Lance’s head. It was too big and slid down his face, the bigger gemstone hitting him in his eye. “It’s weird it hasn’t rusted though. Wait a second,” she started muttering to herself taking a step back and squinting at him. “Aha, I know what it is,” she proclaimed._

_“What it is it? I wanna know!” Lance screeched, jumping towards his older sister._

_She laughed before continuing. “The ancient people from faraway lands used to ride dragons. Only a special few could, so they were special circlets to tell them apart. This here is one of them.”_

_“That’s so cool!” Lance jumped up and down and the circlet fell down some more, the silver resting against his nose. “I wanna be a dragon rider when I grow up!”_

_Lance beamed and Merida only smiled. It was a sad smile, the kind of smile that a parent has when their child asks if Santa is real and they can’t help but go along with it._

A large, gaping hole opened up at the bottom of the cliff behind him. Moonlight lit up a few metres of the mouth of the cave, beyond that, it seemed to continue on. Lance looked back out towards the ocean. A ship sailed out of the bay, fire eating through it quickly. A dragon clawed at the planks that weren’t aflame. It all happened out of reach, like Lance was just watching a play, or a particularly realistic puppet show. The decision of where to go next wasn’t that hard.

The walls of the cave were damp and salty, and the light only reached a few metres. The shadows ate away at everything. They seemed to be moving. There was no telling what they hid, or how deep the cave really was. It could lead deep into the centre of the island, or could come to halting stop a few steps away.

There could be Galra in there, lurking and waiting for a wayward creature. Or there could be a dragon, preparing to roast him and eat him for a midnight snack. Although, over the night Lance’s experience with dragons had been staggeringly more positive than negative. He was going to ignore the way that the Black Beast had dropped him from who-knows-how-high; he was still alive after all. Or possibly, there could be nothing. A silent no one that let would him be, that would do nothing to him other than suffocate him with the realisation that he was completely alone and away from everything he knew and that no one knew where he was.

Lance didn’t know which option was worse.

He gingerly stripped off his jacket and pants, leaving him dripping wet and shivering alone in only a thin shirt and his underwear in a dark cave in the middle of the night. This, simply put, was not how he expected his night to go. Lance walked over to the wall of the cave, sliding down until he sat semi-comfortably, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on the shadows.

“If anyone, or anything,” Lance corrected himself as he called quietly into darkness, flinching slightly when his voice bounced off of the walls. “Is in here with me, please don’t hurt me. I just want to get back home.”

There was no answer except the echoing of his voice. Lance tried to convince himself that he was comforted by that as he drifted out of consciousness and into a place that wasn’t quite sleep.

 

~

 

A low whining noise wrenched Lance awake.

He was disoriented for a few seconds. This wasn’t his room, or the living room, or anywhere in his house. It wasn’t Hunk’s house either, or anywhere that he recognised. It was a cave, he realised. Maybe this was where Keith lived. Lance snickered at the thought.

A flicker of blue caught his eye and the happiness died in his throat. That low whining flickered in and out of existence, Lance’s entire body froze. The world was reduced to the salty wind that stung his eyes and the body that was slinking around on the edge of the water.

The sunlight that poured softly off of the Tide Master’s scales was stunning, absolutely gorgeous, but all Lance could see was the sunlight glinting off of an executioner’s blade. Long body spread out over the sand, lapping up the warm light and basking in it as Lance’s entire body started shake.

The dragon started rolling around a little, spraying sand over itself in the process and making a loud noise that could be described as a mix between a huff and whine, or the closest a dragon could come anyway. It lifted its head up a little, blinking down at where it had been pawing at the soft sand before crashing its face down into the sand. The dark scales of the top of its head poked out from the white powder.

Lance slowly blinked at the dragon. A pile of sand shot into the air, and he could see nostrils peeking out of sand. A large puff of air was released from the dragon’s nose and Lance was reminded so much of his dog when he didn’t give her any food that he barked out a laugh.

This was utterly ridiculous. Lance was huddled up against a cold cave wall, scared for his life and there was a dragon rolling around in the sand and _huffing._ How did anyone think these creatures were scary? What gave them that idea?

Without Lance realising it, the dragon had spotted him and silently made its way over to the mouth of the cave. By the time he had spotted the Tide Master it was standing up taller than normal with teeth threateningly bared. _Oh,_ he thinks he gets it now. He curled in on himself, entire body shaking, feeling like would flake away if he was so much as touched by anything. His hands grasped desperately at his pockets and belt looking for his knife _which wasn’t there._

His heart was punching a hole in his chest and his mind had decided to go on an unexpected vacation. His lungs felt too full and too empty all at once. Two slitted eyes drilled down into his soul, constricted his entire being before the blue head lurched forward.

Lance flinched, fell beck. His head hit the sandy floor and his eyes squeezed closed. He waited for the inevitable feeling of teeth digging into his flesh.

It never came.

He cautiously opened one eye to find the dragon sniffing curiously at him for a few seconds before walking away. Lance’s mouth fell open and he watched as the dragon walked back over to the water’s edge, whined again and then collapsed. Its tail flicked from side to side a few times before the dragon yawned once, then stopped moving altogether.

He laughed incredulously, sharp and short, before collapsing himself and closing his eyes. Today had barely even begun and it had already been way too much to deal with.

~

 

After some undefined amount of time that Lance spent questioning reality he decided he needed to get back home. His family and friends were most likely scouring the island for him and he doubted they would think to look here.

The dragon was still lounging around in the sand, and now that Lance could properly look, he realised something. There were little patches of silver stuck between some of the scales and one wing stuck out of the sand a little awkwardly. Luckily for the dragon, there was no rope tangled over its body.

Lance stood and slowly made his way to the Tide Master. The sand was silent under his feet but the dragon still blinked one eye open at his approach.

“Hey there beautiful,” Lance called from a safe distance away. The dragon stared at him skeptically for a few seconds before slowly sitting itself up on its hind legs. Grains of sand cascaded down one of its wings. Despite the fact that Lance was 80% sure it wasn’t going to maul him to death he still automatically stiffened. There was no adrenaline pounding through his veins, nothing to keep him steady or fearless.

He swallowed thickly and the dragon seemed to track the movement. “I need to get home. My family is looking for me.”

Talking to the dragon was probably useless, it probably couldn’t understand the human language. It did something to help his pounding heart though, the words soft to his ears, something human.

The dragon tilted its head to the side, white scales reflecting enormous amounts of light and almost blinding him. Lance took a step sideways, slightly away from the dragon and towards the cliffs that curved around to the bay were. His plan, although kind of idiotic, was the only option that he had. The bay was, at most, a mile away. If Lance could get out of the reach of the dragon and somehow manage to shimmy and swim back to the bay he could get back to civilisation.

First though, he had to get away from the dragon.

As soon as Lance made to move the dragon’s head had snapped back up perfectly straight, tiny white flaps on top of its head that seemed to act as ears pushed flush with the top its head. A soft growl crawled through the air. Lance yelped and stepped back to his original position. The little ear flaps went back to flopping happily around in the air.

“Okay, not that way then.” Well there went his plans.

Waves crashed softly against the shore, white foam bubbling up around the Tide Master’s tail. It flicked at the foam with the tip of its tail, never taking its eyes off of Lance. The sun, which sat on a bed of clouds, bore down on the dragon. Sunlight lit up every little scale in a shimmering copy of the ocean that swirled behind it. It looked like it had crawled from the depths of the ocean, making sure to coat every inch of its long body in a different part of it.

Lance was frozen, stuck in a trance by just how _beautiful_ this creature was. And then it was moving, stalking towards him with a glint in its eye and Lance was frozen for a different reason.

It stopped a few feet away from him, pressing its face right up close to his. All Lance could see was white and soft blue scales, and two large eyes staring into his own. The world collapsed, rearranged itself to a geometric pattern of ocean, then settled. Lance’s brain overloaded. Two little voices were screaming at each other from opposite ends.

Danger! Blue! Danger! Blue! Danger! Blue! Blue! Danger! Blue! Blue! Dang-Blue! Blue!

Blue.

The dragon let out a large puff of air from its nose before dragging its head away. A few tendrils of steam swirled up into the sky in front of Lance’s face. The dragon started walking away, back towards the cave. The rough scales of the outside of a wing, the one that didn’t have metal tearing through the membrane, brushed against Lance’s arm.

He would have stepped out of the way, would’ve bolted or fallen over or done anything, but he couldn’t move. His limbs were locked into place and his eyes were trained on the empty air where a dragons head had just been.

“I’m still not dead,” he whispered. Then his mouth fell open because after all he had been through _he still wasn’t dead._

A long spiked tail dragged through the sand beside him, and his attention was drawn to how tiny the little spikes were. He didn’t have long to think much about it because that tail was lifting up and whipping around his midsection to form a tight hold before Lance could even process what had happen.

Lance yelped again, he sure had done a lot of yelping and screaming in the past twenty-four hours, and started to be dragged by the dragon into the cave.

“No, please! I just want to go home and see my family and friends! I thought we had a connection!” Lance tried hitting the tail with his hands but that just made the dragon squeeze tighter.

It slowly dragged him away from the warm light and into shadows that seemed to go on and on for eternity. With each step Lance expected the dragon to stop, having reached the end of the cave and devour him, but it kept going. Lance let out a little manly cry, just to let the dragon know how sad he was about having to die before saying goodbye to his family. The Tide Master stopped and made a small noise from deep in its throat before starting to walk again.

Lance gaped at where he assumed the dragons head was. “Was that supposed to be a comforting noise?” He asked incredulously. It had sounded like a comforting noise. There was no way that a dragon was trying to _comfort_ him. But there was that little noise again. Something soft that you would make to a baby that couldn’t quite grasp words yet.

“Wait a second,” the dragon paused, and Lance almost stood on the part of its tail that was trailing along the floor. “Can you understand what I’m saying?” Silence.

Then, quietly, that little noise echoing off the walls as the dragon started dragging Lance deeper into the cave.

“Holy shit! Can you understand exactly what I’m saying or the general gist of it or–”

The dragon made a high pitched whining noise that Lance took to mean ‘stop you’re confusing me with your confusing human words’.

“Okay okay, holy shit this is crazy. Wait until I tell Pidge, she’ll go crazy over this. How do you know our language?” Lance asked. Lance wasn’t a massive nerd like Pidge who obsessed over dragons but he did know that this was a crazy discovery. They would have great celebrations and feasts and he would get mobbed with beautiful girls. Yeah, that sounded pretty nice.

The Tide Master made another confused whine. So this wasn’t a complete understanding of the language, more like a baby understanding of the language. But did that mean that Lance was the baby in the dragon’s eyes? Everything about this was making his brain hurt.

They were now so deep into the cave that when Lance swivelled around he couldn’t see any light. How far did this cave even go? Lance turned back towards the dragon and spotted a pinprick of light in the distance. It lead somewhere then.

“Where are you even taking me?” he whispered, more to himself than to the dragon really, but it still made another little noise at him. Soft, comforting. Something that sounded like home.

“If you can understand me, then I should probably call you something shouldn’t I?” Dragon did sound a little mean. It needed to be something cool, something awesome. But it need to be something gender neutral because Lance didn’t think dragons even _had_ gender. He would have to ask Pidge, she would know something good. She was cool like that.

But for now, he needed something.

They had gotten closer to the opening of the cave, and light was bouncing off the walls and shining on the Tide Master’s scales. Lance sucked in a breath. There was no way something that beautiful could ever be dangerous.

_Thick black hair dark against porcelain skin. Pale moonlight filtering in through a stray hallway. Two bodies pressed close together against the Garrison hallways. An apology on the tip of Lance's tongue. The silver glint of a knife. Wild eyes, flicking from the one against the wall to him. Resting on him._

Lance choked back memories, focusing on the scales that were wrapped around his stomach in an loose grip.

“Blue will do for now.”

 

~

 

Blue had disentangled from him at the very edge of the cave. She had lingered at the edge the darkness before pushing him out into the world with her tail. (Lance had decided Blue was a girl. It wasn’t mean or sexist or anything like that. He had asked even. She seemed more inclined to female pronouns.) She seemed kind of sad to see him go.

‘I’ll be back’ Lance had said, and he meant it. He would even bring friends. He knew how to find Blue now.

The cave, extremely conveniently if you asked Lance, opened up about a hundred meters from the storage barn. He had trotted out of the trees and almost fell face first into an extremely worried and relieved Hunk.

Hunk’s large arms wrapped around him and squeezed him tight, Lance almost melted in his arms. Hunk really did give the best hugs. He pretended not to the notice the tears running down his friend's face.

“Where were you!” Hunk cried, he was still holding Lance tight. “You were gone over the most dangerous night of the entire year. Maybe even the entire century!”

Lance shushed him and slapped a hand over his mouth. He smirked and Hunk’s eyebrows did a confused little dance on his forehead. “Dude, I need to show you something.”

Hunk pulled Lance’s hand off of his face. “If this is some stupid thing you found in the woods I will not put up with this. Everyone was worried about you. _I_ was worried about you. You can’t explain your disappearance with a weird looking tree again.”

“Yeah okay, but I think you’re gonna wanna see this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter: something actually happens for once
> 
> I am iammyfavflower on tumblr if you want to check it out. You can also yell with/at me if you want.


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